Newegg OEM HDD packaging hits all time low

kent

kent

2[H]4U
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Apr 8, 2001
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I've been a customer of 'da Egg since 2001. I've purchased around $50,000 worth of goods since then, and while that's not A LOT -- it is.

In years past OEM hard drives would come with multiple multiple multiple layers of bubble wrap so thick you'd need a small knife to get the hard drive. THAT WAS WONDERFUL.

In recent times Newegg has used a thin strip, usually covering the drive twice of bubble wrap. Well -- I'm wasn't liking this but compared to what I received today it was OK.


Today, I received a large order, around $600, and the hard drive was bare in a plastic protector unit (no anti-static wrap, this must be how Samsung does it, so I blame Samsung for that)

But the plastic protector package (which the hard drive barely fits into, it provides no protection) was wrapped in a BROWN PAPER SACK MATERIAL. I mean, it wasn't a brown paper sack, but it was the material you'd find at your local grocery store as a sack.

It was wrapped around the drive twice, HARDLY ANY PROTECTION. No bubble wrap, NOTHING but this shitty brown paper sack material.

IT WASN'T EVEN TAPED!


Seriously, Newegg -- I know you'll read this. Why the fuck can't you guys get your shit together. We complain on HardForum and all you do is FURTHER DOWNGRADE the packaging.

You wonder why every hard drive on your site has tons of DOA and failures.

IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU.


hdd.jpg
 
I know what you mean. I just made an order of three OEM hard drives from NewEgg and I'm worried how they will arrive.

If they arrive stacked together, with no protection in between each drive, should I refuse package?
 
it looks like an anti shock plastic case, as in its fine. bubble wrap never hurts, but I dont think its really that bad. You ever get a retail hdd? its similar, theres a anti shock mold it sits in inside the box and thats about it.
 
Yes. A retail box has two other huge pieces of plastic forcing the hard drive right in the middle of the box.

They're better.
 
Not to dismiss Newegg's packaging... but how many Gs would be transferred to a hard drive wrapped in bubble wrap if dropped from 3 feet or more? The cardboard box would absorb some, the bubble wrap and peanuts would absorb some too. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I KNEW my new hard drive fell off the shelf in the UPS truck... but you gotta assume some risk with ANY shipping. I'd be happy if Western Digital opened up a store in my town... but how would those hard drives get to the store? Every hard drive is shipped to and from somewhere. I guess I'd only be happy if I bought my hard drives from the clean room as soon as it's manufactured. :)

Would a retail hard drive that tumbled off a shelf have more or less damage than an OEM drive wrapped Newegg's way?
 
MScrip said:
Not to dismiss Newegg's packaging... but how many Gs would be transferred to a hard drive wrapped in bubble wrap if dropped from 3 feet or more? The cardboard box would absorb some, the bubble wrap and peanuts would absorb some too. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I KNEW my new hard drive fell off the shelf in the UPS truck... but you gotta assume some risk with ANY shipping. I'd be happy if Western Digital opened up a store in my town... but how would those hard drives get to the store? Every hard drive is shipped to and from somewhere. I guess I'd only be happy if I bought my hard drives from the clean room as soon as it's manufactured. :)

Would a retail hard drive that tumbled off a shelf have more or less damage than an OEM drive wrapped Newegg's way?
Click to expand...

About the same...as long as the drive was still in the box. Those plastic holders are very good at dampening impact shock in actuality. Hell, I've drop an egg from two stories up and it hit the ground at full speed of gravity...and didn't break. You just gotta know how to encapsulate it. According to your logic, modern cars are not as safe as the old tank behemoths...which is definately not the truth.
 
kent said:
Seriously, Newegg -- I know you'll read this. Why the fuck can't you guys get your shit together. We complain on HardForum and all you do is FURTHER DOWNGRADE the packaging.

You wonder why every hard drive on your site has tons of DOA and failures.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I order hard drives from ZipZoomFly. They may cost more(sometimes), but their packaging is superb.
 
For what it's worth, the system works and works fine.

4400+ Brisbane
2GB Corsair XMS DDR2/800
320GB Samsung / 20x LS Samsung DVDRW
ASUS M2A-VM Motherboard
Generic case/PSU
PCI 802.11g card

Works fine, infact. Vista is already installed. Look for it on eBay soon lol
 
Ive ordered 15+ drives from newegg and never had a single DoA. So either the packaging works better than people expect or Ive been real lucky.

Sucks, but thems the breaks.
 
GLSauron said:
Ive ordered 15+ drives from newegg and never had a single DoA. So either the packaging works better than people expect or Ive been real lucky.

Sucks, but thems the breaks.
Click to expand...

You've been lucky. I've had drives they sent me with crushed PCBs because they bubblewrapped two drives together.
 
I agree, newegg's hdd packaging sucks. I bought 3x500gb seagates (all work great btw), and they were in a piece of styrofoam- like a 4 pack for hdd's, but only on one side... they were just like standing up in it, and they tossed the piece of styrofoam with 3 drives sticking out into a box of packing peanuts to rattle around

I opened the box and my heart sank a bit, but I plugged them in, and they work great
 
Newegg wont listen to us, they never have when it comes to their packaging, they simply save too much money and pass the defective drives up to the factories, who in turn has to raise prices due to retailers inadequate packaging.

Win win for them. Lose lose for us.


I don't get what's with the brown bagging latley, but it's really horrible packing material.
 
I wish I had seen this just before I ordered some drives. Id have gone somewhere else out of principle.
 
I just made an order of three OEM hard drives from NewEgg. If they arrive stacked together, with no protection in between each drive, should I refuse package?
 
What I don't get is Newegg saves $0.03 on packaging but loses $100 from their reputation (or make your own value). The corporate office needs get up the shipping department's ass and tell them great they are trying to save money - but quit with the ridiculous packaging that is ruining their image. This sounds like the shipping manager wants the management carrot they are hanging out for the most money saved per department or something.

I've yet to get one of these crummy wrapped drives but it's just a matter of time. I order about $20k per year from Newegg.
 
It seems hit and miss for me.

Early March I ordered three Samsung F1 750GB drives. I got the same plastic case on my drives from Samsung. Then each of the drives was wrapped in two layers of bubble wrap. Then they were put in a huge box with at least 4 inches of foam peanuts all around them. And extremely nice packing job.

And the funny thing is... two of the drives arrived with bad sectors.

Then I return those and went with WD SE16 640GB drives instead. Since I was worried about getting more Samsung drives. Three drives like before, but this time they arrive in a box half the size. No bubble wrap or foam peanuts, only antistatic bags and wrapped in brown paper. Now I'm thinking, I'll be amazed if at least one of them isn't bad with this poor packing.

I scanned all the drives twice and no bad sectors or any other problems found. Whew.
 
Those plastic shock casings are very common. In the past 2 months, I have received 8 Seagate drives and 4 Fujitsu SAS drives, all in the same casing. No DOAs, so I guess it works ok.
 
those plastic shock cases have been common for quite some time, the last four drives I've bought came like that (I buy at a local shop who's prices are comparable to newegg)
 
The shock cases do work, but the contents still need to be protected.


One time ZZF shipped me a drive in a shock case and inside a drive coffin with packaging popcorn, talk about one fine packaging job!
 
I receive a hard drive from New Egg yesterday and it was cover it bubble wrap and peanut foam.
 
Where did your HDD come from?

Mine came from the California office. There's also ones in TN and NJ.
 
I haven't had any drives poorly packaged... Meh...

The difference is, if they packed it with that brown material and placed it between two bubble-wrapped DVD drives

Or they wrapped it in the brown material and dropped it in an empty box bouncing around...
 
MScrip said:
Not to dismiss Newegg's packaging... but how many Gs would be transferred to a hard drive wrapped in bubble wrap if dropped from 3 feet or more? The cardboard box would absorb some, the bubble wrap and peanuts would absorb some too. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I KNEW my new hard drive fell off the shelf in the UPS truck... but you gotta assume some risk with ANY shipping. I'd be happy if Western Digital opened up a store in my town... but how would those hard drives get to the store? Every hard drive is shipped to and from somewhere. I guess I'd only be happy if I bought my hard drives from the clean room as soon as it's manufactured. :)

Would a retail hard drive that tumbled off a shelf have more or less damage than an OEM drive wrapped Newegg's way?
Click to expand...

http://store.westerndigital.com/ ;)
 
The plastic cover is as good if not better than a static bag, it offers more "protection" by itself with the plastic cover. As for Newegg and their packaging of HD, I do agree, they should package them a little better. However, I have not any problems with any HD order from them (*knock on something). The way they package the HD are not the best but they are not the worst either. Let me ask you guy this, why are you so concern that it has X layers of bubble wrap and peanuts to justify a good package? How much of an impact would need to be inflected for the HD not to function? Please explain the inner working/mechanism of a HD in the off and on state and the affect if X amount of force was inflected to it. What about external portable HD, they get toss around a lot and the average joe doesn't know better.

You can buy your HD from ZZF if the package is a concern and the price are usually the same.
 
Uh, guys?

The plastic cover is actually the only approved method for shipping a hard drive, per the OEM. It does require a minimum 1" on all sides of semi-stable packing, e.g. paper, air-paks, not peanuts. So, well.. guess it's a step up for Newegg at least. Since now they aren't tossing them in to just rattle around with no protection on two ends.
 
AreEss said:
Uh, guys?

The plastic cover is actually the only approved method for shipping a hard drive, per the OEM. It does require a minimum 1" on all sides of semi-stable packing, e.g. paper, air-paks, not peanuts. So, well.. guess it's a step up for Newegg at least. Since now they aren't tossing them in to just rattle around with no protection on two ends.
Click to expand...

not always, I got mine in a piece of styrofoam like this pic, but it was just a piece big enough for 3 drives, and ONLY ONE SIDE. The drives themselves were in static bags, and the one piece of foam + 3 drives was just dropped into a box of peanuts to bang around, in a quite large box

http://cobolhacker.com/images/content/bad_hard_drive_packing_2.jpg
 
That's just plain unacceptable.

I thought mine was bad. At least mine was in a large box with several other components with peanuts.

I felt my drive was packaged "poorly", yours is clearly beyond f'ing terrible and completely unacceptable. I would NOT use those hard drives.
 
It's not Newark, NJ; it is Edison, NJ. I have seen the warehouse and it is in a commercial district of a large commercial/fairly nice suburban town.

Nothing wrong with the town, just with the HDD packing practices inside of the Newegg warehouse.
 
vgame64 said:
It's not Newark, NJ; it is Edison, NJ. I have seen the warehouse and it is in a commercial district of a large commercial/fairly nice suburban town.

Nothing wrong with the town, just with the HDD packing practices inside of the Newegg warehouse.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
What's wrong with loosely wrapping it in paper instead of using large plastic foams?
 
This is why I stopped ordering hard drives from Newegg several years ago. The last one I bought was a Seagate OEM drive, it was in the plastic box and set on the bottom of the box with the rest of the components put on top. It had no cushion between it and the bottom of the box. The drive itself was fine and still is, but I'd attribute that to the quality of Seagates 7200.7's and not the packing method.

From then on it's only been ZZF or Mwave for hard drives, both package the drives very well and are usually cheaper with shipping anyway.
 
My three OEM HDDs from the NJ warehouse had packing issues as well. Contacted NewEgg and they gave me a $15 refund.
 
As long as the drive isn't operating, shocks shouldn't cause bad sectors or errors - all modern drives park the heads in a crash zone that doesn't store data, so it isn't like the head is scraping across the platter. It looks like most Sansung drives have non-operating shock limits of 300 Gs, I'd expect that anti-shock casing and a cardboard box would be enough to keep it under that kind of load from a fall from any reasonable height.
 
Seraphic said:
My three OEM HDDs from the NJ warehouse had packing issues as well. Contacted NewEgg and they gave me a $15 refund.
Click to expand...

You know just when I spoke so soon. I ordered my 4th 640gb Wd from them this week and I received it and it was DOA. That is my first time ever getting a DOA in my 10 years of upgrading and building pc's. :(
 
I recently ordered a Samsung F1 750gb from Newegg. It arrived in the plastic shock case sitting on the bottom of the box with a couple sheets of bubble wrap on top of the drive. Absolute worst packing I have ever seen and convinced me never to order from Newegg again.
 
Just an update. Newegg's Facebook shows a revolutionary new device called cardboard which they're using to secure the drives now.

It only took probably 4000 DOA hard drives and 2 1/2 years BUT WE DID IT. WE WON FOLKS.
 
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